iPhone 11 reunited with owner after spending 6 months in a lake
A diver has recovered an iPhone 11 from the bottom of a lake in British Columbia, one that managed to survive submerged for almost 6 months.
Chilliwack free divers Clayton Helkenberg and wife Heather have a hobby of diving to the bottom of lakes to find lost items and clear rubbish. In a video released on Thursday, he revealed he had discovered an iPhone at the bottom of Harrison Lake.
On exploring the lake bed, Heather noticed the iPhone amongst sediment, while Clayton found a flip phone, reports CBC. While Clayton's find was severely damaged, Heather's iPhone discovery was in far better condition.
"I took it home, cleaned the dirt off of it, and it just turned right on, so it was pretty amazing," said Clayton. Aside from a broken microphone and speaker issues, the iPhone emerged largely unscathed from the ordeal.
After ejecting the SIM and putting it into another device to contact the original owner, it was returned to Vancouver resident Fatemeh Ghodsi. The iPhone was reportedly dropped during a boat ride in September, and contained photos of Ghodsi just before the drop.
"I was in a situation where I kind of lost balance and dropped it in the water," said Ghodsi. Staff members at the park told her it was impossible to find the iPhone in the water, forcing Ghodsi to leave empty-handed.
Ghodsi later replaced the iPhone with another mobile device.
On receiving a text from her old number, the iPhone's owner thought it was friends pranking her, but was later convinced to visit Chilliwack to retrieve her smartphone.
"I was in complete shock, initially to start with," she continued. "It was kind of like a zombie phone coming back to me, because I'd totally make peace with it being gone."
The water-resistance of iPhones has led to numerous other reports over the years, where iPhones are dropped into bodies of water then retrieved at a later time.
In February 2020, Disney officials returned an iPhone to its owner, after scuba divers picked it up from the Seven Seas Lagoon two months after being dropped. One year later in February 2021, a man jumped into Victoria Inner Harvour in British Columbia to retrieve his iPhone XS from the freezing water.
Chilliwack free divers Clayton Helkenberg and wife Heather have a hobby of diving to the bottom of lakes to find lost items and clear rubbish. In a video released on Thursday, he revealed he had discovered an iPhone at the bottom of Harrison Lake.
On exploring the lake bed, Heather noticed the iPhone amongst sediment, while Clayton found a flip phone, reports CBC. While Clayton's find was severely damaged, Heather's iPhone discovery was in far better condition.
"I took it home, cleaned the dirt off of it, and it just turned right on, so it was pretty amazing," said Clayton. Aside from a broken microphone and speaker issues, the iPhone emerged largely unscathed from the ordeal.
After ejecting the SIM and putting it into another device to contact the original owner, it was returned to Vancouver resident Fatemeh Ghodsi. The iPhone was reportedly dropped during a boat ride in September, and contained photos of Ghodsi just before the drop.
"I was in a situation where I kind of lost balance and dropped it in the water," said Ghodsi. Staff members at the park told her it was impossible to find the iPhone in the water, forcing Ghodsi to leave empty-handed.
Ghodsi later replaced the iPhone with another mobile device.
On receiving a text from her old number, the iPhone's owner thought it was friends pranking her, but was later convinced to visit Chilliwack to retrieve her smartphone.
"I was in complete shock, initially to start with," she continued. "It was kind of like a zombie phone coming back to me, because I'd totally make peace with it being gone."
The water-resistance of iPhones has led to numerous other reports over the years, where iPhones are dropped into bodies of water then retrieved at a later time.
In February 2020, Disney officials returned an iPhone to its owner, after scuba divers picked it up from the Seven Seas Lagoon two months after being dropped. One year later in February 2021, a man jumped into Victoria Inner Harvour in British Columbia to retrieve his iPhone XS from the freezing water.
Comments
First, let me say that his is very impressive and well beyond the advertised or expected water-proof-ness of the iPhone.
However, it's kinda funny that a phone with that no longer works as a phone (damaged speaker and microphone) is considered "largely unscathed." It's like many of us said when the iPhone came out--it's really not a "phone." It's a portable computer that can make phone calls (as can a laptop for that matter, but not via cell networks).
Not surprisingly the speakers didn’t fare too well. What I find interesting is that despite the recent claims that Apple may remove the lightning port for water resistance, the port really doesn’t seem to be an issue. It would appear that Apple should remove the speakers and not the lightning port!
(In the last month I used my iPhone about three times to actually make or receive a call.)
www.cbc<dot>ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cell-phone-recovered-from-harrison-lake-1.5937753
It is a weird anachronism.
The hyperlinked article notes that the diver just turned on the phone (no note about charging it).
Apple's iPhone standby durations are based on ordinary room temperature conditions -- not near-freezing submersion.
"On receiving a text from her old number, the iPhone's owner thought it was friends pranking her, but was later convinced to visit Chilliwack to retrieve her smartphone."
Does that mean the original owner did not report the old phone/SIM as lost and kept paying the monthly fee on it? Or perhaps it was a pre-paid SIM and the owner simply chose to abandon the original number when getting a new device?
Heat is the true enemy of batteries. This is not specific to smartphone batteries.
One can get years of additional storage life from batteries if they are stored at low temperatures (like tossing your alkaline cells in the refrigerator).